Navjot Singh Sidhu likely to be released from Punjab's Patiala jail on April 1

Navjot Singh Sidhu, former Punjab Congress chief and cricketer-turned-politician, is likely to be released from Punjab's Patiala jail on Saturday. According to the official Twitter handle of Sidhu, the former MP will be released on April 1. "This is to inform everyone that Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu will be released from Patiala Jail tomorrow," the official Twitter of Sidhu tweeted on Friday. The statement further stated that the concerned authorities have informed about the Sidhu's release from the jail.

This is to inform everyone that Sardar Navjot Singh Sidhu will be released from Patiala Jail tomorrow.

(As informed by the concerned authorities).

— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sherryontopp)

Notably,  Sidhu, a  former MLA from Amritsar, is serving a one-year jail term in Patiala central prison in a 1988 road rage death case. On May 20 last year, the Congress leader was sent to jail after he surrendered before a court in Patiala after being sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in the case concerned.

1988 Road Rage Case

On December 27, 1988, Navjot Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu got into a parking space-related quarrel with 65-year-old Gurnam Singh in Patiala. They were accused of beating the elderly man, and as a result, he died. While Sidhu and his friend were acquitted by a lower court in September 1999, the Punjab & Haryana High Court, seven years later, found them guilty of culpable homicide that did not amount to murder.

They were each given three years of rigorous imprisonment. However, on May 15, 2018, a bench of the Supreme Court made up of Justices J. Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul acquitted Sandhu and found the former head of the Punjab Congress guilty under IPC Section 323 and imposed a fine of Rs.1000 on him. However, the apex court later sentenced the former MP to one year of rigorous imprisonment after a review plea was filed by the family members of the late Gurnam Singh seeking the enhancement of the sentence.